46 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [CHAP. v. 



could na do it, like wise chiels, they didn't try so I wished 

 them a good day, and took the road. I had my gun and four 

 brace of grouse, which they looked at very hard indeed, but I did 

 not let them lay hands on any thing. When I had just got a few 

 hundred yards away, I missed my shot belt, so I went back and 

 found that the keeper had it, and would not give it up. ' You'll 

 be giving me my property, lad, I'm thinking,' I said to him ; but 

 he was just mad like with rage, and said that he would not let 

 me have it. However, I took him by the coat and shook him a 

 bit, and he soon gave it me, but he could na' keep his hands off, 

 and as I turned away, he struck me a sair blow with a stick on 

 my back ; so I turned to him, and deed I was near beating him 

 weel, but after all I thoch't that the poor lad was only doing his 

 duty, so I only gave him a lift into the burn, taking care not to 

 hurt him ; but he got a grand ducking and, Lord ! how he did 

 swear. I was thinking, as I travelled over the hills that day, it 

 was lucky that these twa dogs were not with me, for there would 

 have been wild work in the shealing. Bran there canna bide a 

 scuffle but what he must join in it, and the other dog would go 

 to help him ; and the Lord pity the man they took hold of he 

 would be in a bad way before I could get this one off -his throat 

 wouldn't he, poor dog?" and Bran looked up in Ronald's 

 face with such a half lear, half snake-like expression, that I 

 thought to myself, that I would about as soon encounter a tiger 

 as such a dog, if his blood was well roused. 



The life of a Highland poacher is a far different one from that 

 of an Englishman following the same profession. Instead of a 

 sneaking night-walking ruffian, a mixture of cowardice and 

 ferocity, as most English poachers are, and ready to commit any 

 crime that he hopes to perpetrate with impunity, the High- 

 lander is a bold fearless fellow, shooting openly by daylight, 

 taking his sport in the same manner as the Laird, or the 

 Sassenach who rents the ground. He never snares or wires 

 game, but depends on his dog and gun. Hardy and active as 

 the deer of the mountain, in company with two or three com- 

 rades of the same stamp as himself, he sleeps in the heather 

 wrapped in his plaid, regardless of frost or snow, and commences 

 his work at daybreak. When a party of them sleep out on the 

 hill side, their manner of arranging their couch is as follows : 



